Sunday, April 17, 2016

Organizations: Apply for Citizenship and Integration Grants by April 22

USCIS The Beacon: Each year, USCIS awards millions of dollars in grants to support the quality work of organizations that play a vital role in helping lawful permanent residents in our communities prepare for naturalization. These providers also promote greater civic integration through citizenship instruction - teaching English, U.S. history and civics to new generations of would-be Americans.

This year, we are doing something new to support local organizations that have never received grants through our program. We intend to award about $1 million to first-time recipients in the Citizenship and Integration Grant Program for fiscal year 2016. If you represent one of these organizations, or know of an interested organization, we strongly encourage that organization to consider applying.

This funding opportunity, DHS-16-CIS-010-001, will help nonprofits establish new citizenship instruction programs or expand the quality and reach of existing ones. Examples of eligible organizations include private, nonprofit organizations such as civic, community and faith-based organizations; adult education organizations; and volunteer and literacy organizations.

A separate funding opportunity, DHS-16-CIS-010-002, will award approximately $9 million to public or nonprofit organizations that prepare permanent residents for citizenship by offering both citizenship instruction and naturalization application services.

USCIS began accepting applications for both of these competitive grant opportunities on March 2. Applications aredue by 11:59 p.m. Eastern time on April 22, 2016.

To download the application packages, search by the keywords "citizenship instruction," by CFDA number 97.010, or by the funding opportunity numbers referenced above.